Parasyte System

After an unknown period of time, the only person left in the crater suddenly opened his eyes.

"Haa!" He couldn't help but exhale a large amount of air as soon as he woke up.

He quickly sat up and began to survey his surroundings, the confusion he was feeling was visible on his face.

'Am I... alive...?' Jared thought as he clutched his chest, he knew he had fallen unconscious before Garel, so it really was a surprise that he was alive.

For some reason, there was no one near him, neither the bandaged man nor Garel, as if they had simply left him there.

Seeing that, he decided to take advantage of the situation and slowly began to get up. Although his body was still extremely weakened and sore, he knew he had to get out of there quickly, he wouldn't want other enemies to arrive at this moment.

"!"

However, the moment he tried to stand up, he felt a great weight crush his body, forcing him to stay down.

"...Sh*t." He said as his expression turned incredibly sour.

He was no stranger to this kind of sensation, in fact, it could even be said that he was very well acquainted with it, this was the effect of an esper using the Telekinesis ability.

What was worse, the force contained in the ability was no laughing matter, Jared could estimate that the person responsible would have to be a rank (C+) super at the very least.

"Hey, you'd better not try anything weird, ok?"

A woman's voice was heard, coming from none other than the top of the separate high school building.

Turning to where the voice was coming from, even though it was nighttime, Jared could see what this woman looked like.

Her hair was short and brown in color, her build, though slim, was just enough to be able to perfectly fill out the black dress suit with red pinstripes she was currently wearing.

While her face was definitely attractive, the pressure that was emanating from her made it very clear that one would be in great danger if you got close.

However, what caught his attention the most was not the power this woman seemed to have, but the distinctive outfit she was wearing, specifically the small metal medal which hung from the girl's neck, which resembled a red colored shield with the word "B-" in the middle.

'That shield... it can't be...' Jared thought, a feeling of realization and surprise forming inside him as he recognized what organization the person in front of him belonged to, 'What is someone from the Laers Guild doing here?!'

Although the Laers Guild was an organization of great secrecy due to their criminal nature, there were certain things that people in the underworld knew about them, or rather, that the guild had allowed to be spread.

One of those things was the fact that the members of that organization, in order to be recognized wherever they went, wore an emblem which contained the rank to which they belonged, which meant that this person was a rank (B-) esper!

His surprise was completely understandable, and not only for the woman's strength, which was enough to completely destroy both Metal Body and Wolf's Fang easily.

It was also due to the fact that since the times when the South Zone was divided among several gangs, said guild had not paid any attention to the South Zone at all for two main reasons.

The first and most important was because they were busy taking control of the outskirts of Nightown City.

Rather than being a proper part of the city, they were more like small villages a short distance from the city. None of them had a name and very few people lived in them due to the risk of monsters attacking them, making only people with dubious reputations and considerable personal strength willing to live there.

Although of course, not everything was bad, after all, monsters were not only threats, but depending on the type of monster, each part of its body could be used to create different types of weapons, armaments or even potions and pills, generating an extremely lucrative business only available to people with the capabilities to take care of monsters.

Although the Hunters were in charge of taking care of most of the monsters that attacked the city, they did not go very deep into the forests surrounding Nightown City, which was where the monsters came from because of the danger that this entailed, thus giving certain local forces the opportunity to take advantage of the forest to "hunt".

While the mortality rate of this was stupidly high, if one was strong enough, it was possible to make a small fortune relatively quickly. Of course, this fortune could not compare to what the people who controlled such outlying villages would earn.

The competition for these villages was so intense that even for the Laers Guild, an infamous and powerful criminal group known all over the country, it had cost them a considerable amount of time and resources to take over each of these villages.

As for the second reason, it was due to none other than the Emperor's Gate, an organization whose roots were well entrenched in Nightown City and was also known to be a fierce enemy of the Laers Guild.

Of course, the fact that a member of said guild was here meant that either they had finished taking over the villages, that they had decided to take over the South Zone first, or worse... they were helping Metal Body.

In either case, it wasn't a good thing for either him or his gang.

"Pffft, is it so strange that we're here~?" Said the woman laughing at Jared due to his expression giving away what he was thinking, "Well, to be honest, the local groups on the outskirts were pretty formidable, but after hiring some and showing others who's in charge, it was all pretty easy. The only thing it took us was time~"

Since it wasn't really important information, she didn't mind telling Jared, who seemed to understand this quickly.

"...You guys were the ones who gave the blood pills to Garel, right?" He asked, hoping to confirm once and for all whether they were Metal body allies or not.

He knew that Metal Body's economic power far exceeded what Wolf's Fang had at their disposal, but he was absolutely certain that even with that, they wouldn't be able to be able to afford to buy  blood pills for every elite member in their organization.

As for how he knew that they were using that kind of pill, thanks to the reports he received while he was still busy with Noah, he was quickly able to intuit what kind of method they were using in order to display such an aggressive power surge.

"Of course it was us, who else would it be~?" The woman replied nonchalantly with a smile on her face. "Though of course, the price was quite expensive, not only will they have to help us with the outskirts of the city, but they will also have to give us a few districts and almost all of your organization's subordinates that they capture."

Hearing the woman's confirmation, plus what was going to happen to the Wolf's Fang members, Jared's mood plummeted. Without a doubt, every time the woman spoke, it was bad news for him.

"Oh right, speaking of your friend, if you're wondering why he's not here, it's because he was taken away by his subordinates. I think they did well, his appearance was horrible, he looked as if someone had taken all the energy from his body... much like your condition."

When she finished saying that, the woman stood up and jumped towards the ground, falling delicately and slowly thanks to the precise control she had over her skill, landing right next to Jared.

She then squatted down to converse with Jared while looking him straight in the eyes, as if wanting to catch even the smallest detail of his reactions.

"You know, he initially wanted to kill you, but thanks that I got there in time, we were able to avoid that. So we could say that you owe me your life, so I want you to answer me with complete honesty."

Although the tone of the woman's voice hadn't changed at all, her gaze didn't contain even a hint of the carefree attitude from before, showing that she was completely serious.

"Tell me... what happened to your Cores...?"

***

Meanwhile, in one of the rooms of the main hospital of the South Zone, in Metal Body territory, an executive was reading a report to the person currently occupying the bed in that room.

This person's appearance was terrible, as if he had aged several years in a single night, the color of his skin had changed to an unhealthy white, as for his constitution, if he had been thin before, now it seemed that even a weak breeze would be able to knock this person down.

This was the current appearance of Garel, Metal Body's boss.

"Although we took quite a few losses at the beginning of the battle, everything balanced out after our elite members formed a large fighting force, even getting to the point where they were able to easily take care of every Wolf's Fang guardian in their path and disposing of most normal members at the same time. Of course, that doesn't take away from the fact that they had disobeyed their orders to work in teams of 3... but I... think they did well..."

The last sentence was said somewhat flippantly, as if the executive was trying to downplay that part.

This was understandable, after all, he was completely blown away by the performance of the elite members, who were only expected to be able to handle, at most, 40% of Wolf's Fang's guards.

Therefore, knowing the serious nature of his boss, he wanted to appeal that they didn't have some sort of punishment for disobeying the boss' orders.

"...What about... the other executives...?" Weakly said Garel, who was lying prostrate on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, ignoring the concerns of the executive in front of him.

"Yes, um, along with the large elite group, led by Larce, they also started attacking the remaining high-ranking members of Wolf's Fang. Although we also suffered some casualties, mainly from the elite group, right now there are only 2 high ranking members of Wolf's Fang left, these are currently surrounded by the remaining executives and the elite group. I estimate it will take half an hour or so to finally finish them off."

After saying that, the executive couldn't help but feel joyful, after all, with most of its members and their leader out of the way, Wolf's Fang would no longer exist after tonight, leaving the way clear for Metal Body to finally become the one and only true ruler of the South Zone.

"Hm... thank you for the report, you're dismissed." Garel replied, seeming satisfied with what he had just heard.

Without another word, the executive left the room to move to wait outside, as his job was not only to inform the boss of the current situation, but also to stand guard so that nothing unexpected would happen to the boss while he was in the hospital.

As for why the one who was here was not Revad, Garel's right hand man, that was because the power of said person was quite high and it was more beneficial to have him on the battlefield than guarding the boss.

Now without the executive in the room, Garel opened his eyes as he looked at the white colored ceiling with a complicated expression in his eyes, he felt glad that they had finally been able to defeat Wolf's Fang, but on the other hand, the weight of the actions he took to make this happen started to worry him.

Because he knew very well that Wolf's Fang's strength was quite high, mainly due to the high-ranking members and especially Jared, he had resorted to trading with the Laers Guild, accepting various conditions from the latter for all the pills they bestowed upon him as they didn't have enough money to purchase them normally.

That decision had proven to be completely right, but now that the fight between the two gangs was all but over, he couldn't help but think that he had called in a tiger to chase the wolf away.

'...I'll have to find some way to get rid of them in the future...' He thought, knowing that he would undoubtedly have to deal with this problem.

While the guild was incredibly influential and had vast resources that could benefit Metal Body, Garel was even more worried that the Emperor's Gate was going to link them and wipe out both organizations, erasing them from Nightown City.

Then, deciding to leave that issue for the future, Garel placed his hand on the center of his chest, as if trying to feel the energy inside him.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he could only muster a paltry amount of energy, nothing compared to what he was able just a few hours ago.

Letting out a deep breath, he removed his hand and placed it where it was previously.

'Apparently my Core was also affected by whatever that guy did to Jared...'

His reaction was completely different from the one Jared had when he found out that his Core wasn't going to be able to be used again, but this was somewhat understandable.

Unlike Jared, who had focused all his attention on his Core already formed years ago, Garel had only formed his a few months ago, so recently that he hadn't even been able to get the most out of it, only using an estimated 10% of his Core's potential.

So, while losing it had been a real shame, it was not an irretrievable loss, even less so if he considered it the price for the bandaged man having helped him defeat Jared.

What he was truly interested in was knowing exactly what this person's identity was, what was his ability, and more importantly, what was his objective.

'Jared asked him if he belonged to the Emperor's Gate, but I don't think I've heard that they have any martial technique capable of destroying Cores or stealing vitality... I don't even think there is such a thing in the whole country...' He thought, remembering the times he checked Taylor and Colt.

He originally thought his understanding of this character that appeared overnight was considerably accurate, but after tonight, he couldn't help but feel that what he knew wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

'Haa... so many things to do... and so little time on my hands....'

Feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion flood his body, Garel decided to close his eyes to take a well-deserved rest, leaving all the unfinished business for the future.